learning technologies for learner services

Information technology can be helpful in supportingadvice, guidance, and student learning services, but itssuccessful use demands constant attention to learners’realities and a skeptical enthusiast’s attitude.

Learning Technologies for Learner Services

Marion Phillips, Patrick Kelly

A service for adult learners that complements the core teaching process andoffers advice and guidance to help students to learn effectively is an integralcomponent of successful open and distance education (ODE). Such a ser-vice is especially important in technology-mediated contexts for five impor-tant reasons:

• The learners are usually mature adults, studying on a part-time basis.They need educational and organizational skills to save their time andmoney and to maintain a balance between the often-competing demandsof study, family, friends, work, and social life.

• Usually, the open learner is physically separated both from the teacherand fellow students for much of the time.

• Adult learners do not just need to revive “rusty” study skills; most needto develop a whole new set of learning and information literacy strategies.

• Learners in ODE systems are often not subject to admission criteria thatdemand prior educational qualifications. This openness is a particularcanon of The Open University (OU) in the United Kingdom, so our con-tinuing challenge is to offer undergraduate courses comparable in qualityto other universities, but without imposing academic entrance require-ments of any kind and without merely offering learners a chance to fail(see www.open.ac.uk).

• ODE is usually very flexible with students having a high degree of choice.Our students can choose single courses or group their course creditstogether for specific qualifications such as undergraduate or postgradu-ate certificates, diplomas, and degrees. Such an open curriculum allows

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION, no. 88, Winter 2000 © Jossey-Bass, a Wiley company 17

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18 THE STRATEGIC USE OF LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES

undergraduate students the freedom to construct a study program ofinterest or relevance without the constraint of subject or faculty bound-aries. Students can take a degree in a named subject area but there is nocompulsion to do so; they may choose courses in any order, at any level,and from any faculty they wish.

What Is a Learner Service?

These five factors—competing life demands, physical separation, learningskill needs, open admission policy, and program-course choice flexibility—create specific demands for focused and timely support for learners. Wemanage the provision of this support and the mediating effects of eachapplied learning technology. We do not necessarily mirror what happens intraditional settings, nor does technology mediation always create helpfuleffects. Let us explain.

For us, a learner service is not just giving initial advice for inquirers ordealing with student problems, nor is it just the responsibility of a smallgroup of specialized counseling staff. Advice, guidance, and study supportare developmental factors in the whole learning process and include activ-ities such as choosing and planning a study program, organizing study,developing learning skills, monitoring progress, and managing universityprocedures. Also, students should be able to access advice and guidance asthey need to, including career guidance and special needs facilities.

All these learning needs are explicitly related to the four principalphases of the student career: entry, induction, on course–on program, andcompletion–moving on. Bailey, Brown, and Kelly (1996) see these phasesand their related objectives as generic, although the provision and methodof delivery will vary from institution to institution.

What Is Provided and Why?

During the first, or entry, phase of a student’s career, from initial inquiry toenrollment, the learner service can provide useful information and accessto advice and guidance so that the adult learner may make an informedchoice about the decision to study, the selection of courses, and the programof study. The information includes descriptions of courses and qualificationsavailable, admissions policies, fees, information about student services, andsources of further advice. Advisory staff offer guidance and advice to enablelearners to make an informed choice; inquirers are invited to open meetingsand can request or may be sent diagnostic materials and information aboutopportunities to prepare for learning.

The second phase involves induction into the university. In addition tointroducing the university’s operations and the mode of open learning, alearner service helps adults develop learning and student skills for successfultransition into higher education. The service might include giving out orien-

19LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES FOR LEARNER SERVICES

tation and preparatory material and ensuring an opportunity for adults toattend an introductory meeting with their personal tutor. (A tutor is an acad-emically qualified and specially trained person who works with a small groupof learners anywhere in the world—but mostly in the United Kingdom—aseach one progresses through course materials designed by a multiskilled teaminside The Open University.)

As the learner progresses through the course or qualification (the thirdphase), the tutor will be responsible for immediate on-course academic sup-port, including feedback on assignments, tutorial support, monitoring stu-dent progress, and acting as a point of first contact for the student’s queries.Nevertheless, Brindley (1995) affirms that there is still much specialist guid-ance and study support that can be provided by the learner service to meetspecific learners’ needs—for example, learning and study skills workshops,services for disabled students, guidance on future course choice, profes-sional recognition and careers, and help with administrative and operationalmatters.

Finally, as a student completes a course or qualification and preparesto move on (fourth phase), the learner service can provide information,advice, and guidance about further study options and career opportunities,academic transcripts, and references and recognition of achievement.

Historically, learner services have been the poor cousin of teaching andtherefore vulnerable to reductions in times of budget constraints. However,there is now much greater awareness that advice, guidance, and student ser-vices can give institutions a marketing edge and help increase retention andthe overall quality of the learning experience. The U.K. government–backedsystem of quality assurance for higher education includes student supportand guidance as one of the six core aspects of provision to be assessed(Quality Assurance Agency, 2000).

Which Learning Technologies Are Used?

A holistic learner service can be mediated through a variety of learning tech-nologies ranging from simple printed guides and other written materials tocomplex interactive electronic systems. Similarly, advisory staff can offerguidance and advice by letter, telephone, and face-to-face meetings as wellas by using the new technologies. So how can we choose which learningtechnologies to use to provide an effective and accessible learner service forour students?

One of the hallmarks of ODE is the use of a wide variety of teachingmedia ranging from print to television and video, radio and audiocassettes,and increasingly, information and communication technologies (ICT). TheOU uses a multimedia approach to learner services: initially these werebased on face-to-face contact, the telephone, and written materials, but nowthey have been expanded to include e-mail, computer conferencing, and theInternet. We own up here to being two skeptical enthusiasts as we develop


Web-based advice, guidance, and learner services for inquirers and students(Phillips, Scott, and Fage, 1998). Although our student response is positiveand there is huge potential for further enhancement, we have no illusions;we are at the “just-starting-to-crawl” stage and do not expect to be walkingfor some time. It is worth noting, amid all the hype, that the Web has beenwith us for little more than a decade and there is still much to learn in usingit. Almost every educational institution has a Web site but we are depressedby the number that serve no discernible purpose other than to announce,“Hey, we have a Web site.”

As the new technologies affect learner advice and support, this processraises the question of whether the increasing use of ICT is likely to sweepaway current tried-and-true practices. Students are certainly making use ofthe new media for studying. For example, at the time of writing, the OUWeb site receives approximately five hundred thousand page hits a week, aquarter of our courses require a personal computer, and forty thousand ofour students are online. These numbers grow rapidly.

At the same time, students also increasingly use the telephone to con-tact our learner service—to the extent of 1,500,000 calls annually frominquirers and enrolled students. In addition, our work and our reputationrelies on well-designed printed materials; for our learner service, these prod-ucts include, for example, brochures that describe the university’s coursesand teaching system, preparatory and learning skills resources, administra-tive information, and careers materials.

We still offer printed materials for several reasons. At least for now, areasonable number of our students report no or very limited access to acomputer with Internet link. Also, we do not assume that all our studentswill have the appropriate skills for using these new electronic media, or thefinance to support their online costs. In addition, although we are begin-ning to experiment with multimedia, many of our Web resources arederived from existing printed documents and materials and students maywell prefer to study by reading from paper rather than sitting in front of ascreen for long periods of time. We continue to offer individual contact ata distance via the telephone, because we know that this technology is stilla preferred medium for many adult learners.

Nevertheless, as more and more students need access to computers forstudy, they expect to be able to access learner services and the university’sadministration through these media. Even in courses where computers arenot required, a growing number of students and tutors communicate by e-mail. Ignoring the new learning technologies is not an option, but ourapproach is to use them appropriately alongside traditional teaching andlearning media. As a result, the need to provide resources in a variety ofmedia is likely to increase costs rather than reduce them, at least in the shortterm and possibly for much longer. Our concern is whether students willfeel that significant study costs are being transferred to them. For theircourse fee they used to receive well-designed teaching materials; now they


need to buy a PC to participate in the course and spend a small fortuneprinting hard copy in order to avoid eyestrain. There is also the question ofwhether institutions are ready for the additional tuition costs, which areexpected because the tutor is likely to spend more time online. Many stu-dents are reluctant to interrupt their tutor with a phone call but few haveany inhibitions about sending e-mails. The telephone conversation betweentutor and student is a private affair, but the e-mail exchange is semipublic.As a result, the tutor has to construct the response carefully—in effect toprepare a mini-tutorial—because even if he or she doesn’t forward the replyto a study problem to the rest of the group, the student who received itprobably will. The face-to-face tutorial has a fixed cost, and the number oftutorials can be controlled. In comparison, e-mail contact is potentiallyopen-ended and the more helpful the tutor is the greater the demand andcost will be.

ICT and Learner Services

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are already being usedin various ways to support adult learning (Kirkwood, 1998; Vincent andWhalley, 1998). Information, advice, and therapy services are offered overthe Internet: Offer (1993) discusses the increasing use of the Web for careerguidance; King, Engi, and Poulis (1998) outline the use of ICT to assist fam-ily therapy; Sampson, Kolodinsky, and Greeno (1997), Tait (1999), andMurphy and Mitchell (1998) describe Internet-based counseling services,and Scott, Curson, Shipton, and McAuley (1996) have produced a counsel-ing information support system for university students.

However, such use of the Web has raised concerns among some prac-titioners who fear that human relations will be “mechanized” through theuse of ICT. Written words can be misinterpreted: the clues from nonverbalbehavior are absent and it may not be possible to communicate warmth andcaring through computer-mediated communication (Watts, 1996). Some arealso concerned about the potential loss of confidentiality because hackerscan break into material on the Web.

Electronic media are starting to make a significant contribution tolearner services. In the process they are helping to improve the relationshipbetween the individual student and the educational institution by enablingstudents to become active members of a learning community with easyaccess to fellow students and their tutor, and links to other staff and to stu-dent societies. ICT can improve efficiency, and more importantly for aneffective learner service, they may enable ODE institutions to personalizetheir support systems by providing the mechanism for closer links betweenthe student and the institution. At present or shortly our students will haveaccess online to their personal records and to information and advice abouttheir progress for their course and qualification. They will be able to regis-ter and pay fees, undertake preparatory work, and receive an induction to


study, access university information, communicate with their tutor and stu-dent group, access course materials and learning skills resources, sendassignments, and take exams.

Smart applications of the new media will eventually provide a learnerservice that both fulfills all the generic functions and relates to the needsand life contexts of each adult learner. The use, for example, of hyperlinksand online searching facilities can help students access information andguidance opportunities as and when they need to. In addition, online inter-active exercises and Internet multimedia can help to make adult learningissues come alive (Scott and Phillips, 1998). We contend that the provisionof learner support through ICT will become an indispensable part of adviceand guidance services. The use of ICT in the provision of learner advice andsupport services does not make personal support with real people redun-dant. In our experience, students do not want to be asked to choosebetween traditional methods and the new electronic media. They wantwhatever works best for them.

Offering online learner services can often increase students’ under-standing of the issues confronting them and also save their time andmoney. For example, the student is better informed before entering intodiscussion with learning support staff. But it is still possible, throughpoor planning of online navigation, to get the balance wrong and causemedia and information overload. The student enrolls because of an inter-est in literature or chemistry but spends time failing to master the mix ofprint, audiovisual, computer, and Internet learning technologies andgives up in despair without ever really engaging with the content of thecourse.

Course Choice and Study Planning: An Example

To increase learners’ sense of competence in choosing courses and a pro-gram, we develop ICT for learner support in three main areas: the provisionof information, carrying out business transactions, and learner services.

At its simplest, ICT can be used to provide an online brochure con-taining details of the various courses offered by the institution. A more com-plex system may allow online enrollment and other administrativetransactions. However, a real service for students will also involve opportu-nities for learner advice and support.

Because we can anticipate from experience many of the questions thatthe online user might raise, we have produced generic resources availableon the OU Web site, mainly in the form of simple html text (www.open.ac.uk/learners-guide).

The Learner’s Guide to The Open University contains detailed back-ground information about what studying with the OU involves, how sup-ported open learning works, study time requirements, the significance ofvarious academic levels, study preparation options, credit transfer, residen-


tial schools, special needs, and the role of the tutor. A series of case studiesof “typical students” shows what it is really like to study with the OU. Bothnew and continuing students need guidance about their choice of coursebecause at undergraduate level there are no entry requirements for any ofthe 150 or so courses available. Some courses can be combined into pre-scribed qualifications—for example, named diplomas and B.A. and B.S.degrees—and all students have the option to “pick and mix” various coursesinto a package that leads to an “open” degree.

For an online guidance system to be useful, it is essential that studentsbe able to access information as and when required—they are unlikely towant to work their way through a whole book of advice! We try to achievethis efficiently by providing many clear navigation links between ourresources and other sections of the OU Web site. For example, an inquirerscanning the online course brochure might dip into the Learner’s Guide tolearn what is meant by a level 1 or a level 3 course, or what regional servicesare available.

The Learner’s Guide encourages users to think through makingchoices, to seek information, and to explore key issues. It is also designedto be interactive. One example is our time management exercise. It hasproved very difficult to convey in print the reality of the hours needed forundergraduate-level work. Many students who withdraw from courses saythey underestimated the amount of time required; a written paper noteabout time management (along with other allegedly helpful advisory jew-els) can all too easily be thought banal and cheerfully ignored by a busyadult. We need to help inquirers fully understand the time demands theywill face before they commit themselves. The time management exerciseasks prospective students to assess how much time they will have avail-able and what other life tasks they will have to give up in order to find thenecessary hours for study. The computer adds up the time the studentscan allocate and then offers advice about whether this is sufficient to com-plete a course successfully. Three versions of the exercise are offered totake account of differing computer specifications: a fully interactive ver-sion with audio advice, a similar version with text-based advice (for thosewho cannot or do not wish to hear the audio), and an html text versionfor the user to download and complete off-line. The Learner’s Guide is partof the OU provision, but it functions as a reality check more than a mar-keting tool, and we are committed to helping the learner make informedchoices.

Course choice and study planning is only one small part of our onlineservice. We include resources for career guidance, for students with dis-abilities, detailed preparation for study, induction into the university, howto manage the university (context management to help the learner feel incontrol), and learning and study skill development. Each of these areas ofthe Learner’s Guide will contain information, advice, and guidance oppor-tunities and interactive exercises.


The Future

In developing our strategy for online learner services we do not intend toreplace the current service. Rather, we want to provide an additional servicethat exploits the new media and responds to the growing numbers of adultswho use it already. The Learner’s Guide, for example, prompts users to con-tact real advisers if further information or guidance is needed; it facilitatessuch an exchange through e-mail and provides telephone contact numbers.We also plan to offer real-time online access to advisers in the future.

However, it would be foolish to ignore concerns about costs or worriesabout the ultimate direction of ICT developments. The cost of gainingaccess to a computer with an Internet link often falls directly on the indi-vidual student, and inevitably, it will be a barrier to study for some people.The era of the digitally dispossessed has arrived. This is a particular issuefor institutions that have a mission to widen participation. The OU wouldlose credibility if it did not use the new media, but at present fewer than halfthe homes in the United Kingdom have an Internet-linked PC. If, as seemsprobable, access becomes commonplace as a result of a fusion of televisionand computing technologies, then ICT has real potential to transform ODEby enabling learners to use a much wider range of resources and becomeactive members of a learning community with easy links to their tutor andfellow students.

It is difficult to predict if the virtual institution will ever occupy morethan a niche market or if is destined to become the mainstream. Our expe-rience suggests taking a cautious approach. Recent research studies indicatethat our adult OU students assume that the university will make greater useof ICT for teaching and learner support. They expect to be able to telephonethe university in the evening and over the weekend. They value correspon-dence tuition. They want some opportunities for face-to-face tutorial con-tact. They like the flexibility of e-mail communication with their tutor andfellow students. It is also clear that students—our paying customers—fearthe university plans to expand computer conferencing (which is not highlyregarded) at the expense of face-to-face support (which is). They have alsovoiced concerns about the possibility that the OU might move away frommore personal forms of contact toward more remote services delivered elec-tronically. “For the online and Net-sophisticated respondents, e-mail hadrapidly become their preferred method of contacting the OU for bothadministration and tutors. Net-naïve students believed that e-mailing theOU would become their main method of contact in the future but worriedthat the OU may go ahead with exclusive e-mail contact and that theywould be left behind” (Open University, 2000).

Some argue that the next generation of students who have grown upwith computers, Nintendos, Playstations, e-mail, and the Internet will bedifferent from their predecessors. We are not so sure. In the United King-dom, both primary (five to eleven age group) and secondary schools (eleven


to eighteen age group) use ICT as an additional resource, not as a replace-ment for the classroom, library, books, or interaction with the teacher orother pupils. This strategy could mean that the next generation of adultODE students also will expect to use all the learning technologies. Thisexpectation may be the real challenge for adult educators everywhere.

References

Bailey, D., Brown, J., and Kelly, P. “Academic Advice, Personal Counselling, and On-Programme Guidance in the Open University.” In Personal Tutoring and AcademicAdvice in Focus, Paper DQE 224. London: Higher Education Quality Council, 1996.[www.niss.ac.uk/education/heqc/pubs.html]

Brindley, J. “Learners and Learner Services: The Key to the Future in Open DistanceLearning.” In J. M. Roberts and E. M. Keough (eds.), Why the Information Highway?Lessons from Open and Distance Learning. Toronto: Trifolium Books, 1995.

King, S. A., Engi, S., and Poulis, S. T. “Using the Internet to Assist Family Therapy.”British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 1998, 26(1), 43–52.

Kirkwood, A. “New Media Mania: Can Information and Communication TechnologiesEnhance the Quality of Open and Distance Learning?” Distance Education, 1998,19(2), 228–241.

Murphy, L. J., and Mitchell, D. l. “When Writing Helps to Heal: E-mail as Therapy.”British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 1998, 26(1), 21–31.

Offer, M. “The Implications of Using the Computer As a Tool in Guidance.” In A. G.Watts, E. Stern, and N. Deen (eds.), Career Guidance Toward the 21st Century. Cam-bridge: Careers Research and Advisory Centre, 1993. [www.crac.org.uk]

Open University. OUTIS Student Survey: Debrief Document. Milton Keynes, Bucks, U.K.:Open University, 2000.

Phillips, M., Scott, P., and Fage, J. “Toward a Strategy for the Use of New Technology inStudent Guidance and Support.” Open Learning, 1998, 13(2), 52–58.

Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. Subject Review Handbook, September2000 to December 2001. Gloucester, U.K.: Quality Assurance Agency, 2000.[www.qaa.ac.uk/SRHbook2/intro.htm]

Sampson, J. P., Kolodinsky, R. W., and Greeno, B. P. “Counselling on the InformationHighway: Future Possibilities and Potential Problems.” Journal of Counselling andDevelopment, 1997, 75, 203–212.

Scott, P., Curson, J., Shipton, G., and McAuley, J. “A Computer-Based Student WelfareInformation, Support, and Help System.” In P. Carlson and F. Makedon (eds.), Pro-ceedings of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia 1996. Charlottesville, Va.: Associ-ation for the Advancement of Computers in Education, 1996.

Scott, P., and Phillips, M. “Developing Web-Based Student Support Systems: Telling Stu-dent Stories on the Internet.” In M. Eisenstadt and T. Vincent (eds.), The KnowledgeWeb: Learning and Collaborating on the Net. London: Kogan Page, 1998.

Tait, A. “Face-to-Face and at a Distance: The Mediation of Guidance and CounsellingThrough the New Technologies.” British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 1999,27(1), 113–122.

Vincent, T., and Whalley, P. “The Web: Enabler or Disabler.” In M. Eisenstadt and T.Vincent (eds.), The Knowledge Web: Learning and Collaborating on the Net. London:Kogan Page, 1998.

Watts, A. G. “Computers in Guidance.” In A. G. Watts, B. Law, J. Killeen, J. M. Kidd,and R. Hawthorn (eds.), Rethinking Careers Education and Guidance: Theory, Policy,and Practice. London: Routledge, 1996.


MARION PHILLIPS and PATRICK KELLY are assistant directors of student servicesat The Open University, United Kingdom.

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